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Sam Raimi Will Direct 'Wizard of Oz' Prequel with Robert Downey Jr.

By Brad Trechak (Subscribe to Brad Trechak's posts), Posted Oct 6th 2010 5:51PM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical
The Wizard of OzDirector Sam Raimi has officially been given the reins to direct the prequel to 'The Wizard of Oz' (which up until now was a project that was still very much up in the air as Raimi continued to work on his World of Warcraft adaptation). You'll remember that this is the film called 'Oz: The Great and Powerful', and it tells the origins story of how the Wizard of Oz became, well, the Wizard of Oz. It'll track him from his days as a circus wrangler through to when a tornado brought him to the magical land of Oz. David Lindsay-Abaire, who wrote the play 'Rabbit Hole', is currently re-writing the script.

One of the big reasons Raimi wanted to do 'Oz 'is so that he could work with Robert Downey Jr., who's still in negotiations to take on the role of the Wizard (fingers crossed those negotiations end with Downey Jr. in the part). Raimi is better known nowadays for his work on the 'Spider-Man' movies, however the Raimi that sticks in my mind is the one responsible for the 'Evil Dead' franchise and the gory, gruesome images that resulted (he later turned the franchise into a parody of itself with 'Army of Darkness').

While 'The Wizard of Oz' is mostly known for being cute, a modern turn would likely be more twisted as with the recent 'Alice In Wonderland' movie, which was made by the same studio behind this 'Oz' movie, Disney.

Other directors could have handled the franchise with a similar style. Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton (who directed the aforementioned 'Alice In Wonderland') or even Guillermo del Toro are all known for their unique visual styles, and any of them could easily have made a memorable Oz movie. Could this become Sam Raimi's next great franchise, or is he taking this just to pass the time before World of Warcraft destroys movie theaters everywhere?

Wonder Woman to Hit TV Before the Big Screen

By Brad Trechak (Subscribe to Brad Trechak's posts), Posted Oct 4th 2010 10:05AM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical
Wonder WomanThere have been repeated attempts over the past few years to bring the Amazon Princess to the big screen -- including a notable attempt by geek icon Joss Whedon -- though for now it looks like folks have instead turned their attention toward getting 'Wonder Woman' on television again. For those too young to remember, Diana Prince's alter ego had her own show in the '70s starring Lynda Carter.

The most surprising piece of information relating to this news is that David E. Kelley, creator of such television shows as 'Ally McBeal' and 'The Practice', has been assigned to revamp the heroine for television.

It seems a shame that the number three icon at DC Comics is sent back to television while the top two (Superman and Batman) have made successful movie franchises and arguably number four (Green Lantern) is on his way to movie stardom. Back in May, Warner Bros. did say that they're still developing Wonder Woman for the big screen, though as of now there's no word on how far along they are. DC plans to reveal their plans for the big screen by the end of the year.

While there is no doubt that some talent is behind this new concept for Wonder Woman, one can only hope that they don't alter her for television audiences to the point of unrecognizability (like J. Michael Straczynski has just done in the comics). In a world where the big superheroes are finding themselves in movie theaters nowadays, can someone like Wonder Woman survive on the small screen? Is there still a place for live-action superheroes on TV?

Think about that while you watch the opening to the old 'Wonder Woman' TV show after the jump.
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Matthew McConaughey to Spend Time With 'Bernie'

By Brad Trechak (Subscribe to Brad Trechak's posts), Posted Oct 1st 2010 9:00PM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical
Matthew McConaugheyMatthew McConaughey has joined the cast of Jack Black's dark comedy 'Bernie.'

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie, directed by Richard Linklater, is about a mortician (Black) in a Texas town who befriends and kills a cantankerous, wealthy widow-- played by Shirley MacLaine -- and then has to maintain the illusion that she's still alive.

McConaughey will play a district attorney who's suspicious about the widow's death. Rip Torn also stars as Black's defense attorney.
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Five Films That Deserve a Broadway Musical

By Brad Trechak (Subscribe to Brad Trechak's posts), Posted Sep 22nd 2010 7:02PM
Filed under: Features, Cinematical

The ProducersAll forms of entertainment adapt each other nowadays.

Television shows come to Broadway. Movies get made into television shows and vice-versa. Successful musicals become movies. Almost everything comes from a book or gets adapted into a novelization. The list goes on.

In more than one case, a movie has been made into a Broadway show. The most obvious example of this is Mel Brooks' 'The Producers,' but there have been a myriad of others such as 'Big,' 'Legally Blonde,' several of the Disney movies (animated or otherwise) ... the list goes on. In fact, it was just announced that the 1992 Disney film 'Newsies' will be adapted into a Broadway show, as well as 'Catch Me If You Can'.

The question is: what other movies should be tapped for adaptation to a Broadway musical? 'The Producers' was an obvious choice because it's about Broadway and was originally conceived as a play. But what else is out there?

What follows after the jump are five films that could work on Broadway. They are arbitrarily selected and are not necessarily the five best. If you can think of better choices, please let us know in the comments.
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Louis C.K.'s 'Hilarious' Now Streaming Online for Free (Watch This)

By Brad Trechak (Subscribe to Brad Trechak's posts), Posted Sep 21st 2010 10:10AM
Filed under: Cinematical

Louis C.K.Do our older readers remember a time before Al Gore invented the Internet and everything changed for the entertainment industry? Remember those concert movies that comedians would actually release in the theater that people would pay money to see? Richard Pryor had a couple and Eddie Murphy had one with 'Raw'. There were scores of others as well for those particularly well-known comedians of the time.

Nowadays, there are only a few comedians that could actually have a theatrical comedy concert anymore (Sarah Silverman released 'Jesus Is Magic' in about eight theaters). This is mostly due to the massive number of alternative choices for finding such things, particularly due to that Internet thing mentioned before.

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Even MTV Is Doing Vampires Now

By Brad Trechak (Subscribe to Brad Trechak's posts), Posted Sep 15th 2010 11:03AM
Filed under: Movie News, News/Reactions, Horror

MTVMTV, which has long abandoned the "Music" portion of their name, has gotten into supernatural scripted television recently. First they have the television version of Teen Wolf and now they're producing a series about a group of vampire/werewolf/zombie hunters in a group called the Undead Task Force in Southern California called Death Valley.

Death Valley is going to be a combination of horror and comedy. Think Reno 911 with a supernatural twist. For those who are concerned about too many vampire shows on television (True Blood, Vampire Diaries, etc.), this one at least has potential of being a little different, even allowing for improvisation by the actors.

I'm hoping Death Valley may even get some of the cast members from The State as guest stars (perhaps they could play the zombies or the vampires. They are getting up there in age). Several members of that cast created Reno 911 in the first place.

David Fury Out and Stephen Lang In at Terra Nova?

By Brad Trechak (Subscribe to Brad Trechak's posts), Posted Sep 14th 2010 11:55AM
Filed under: Movie News, News/Reactions, Sci-Fi
Terra NovaThe upcoming Fox series Terra Nova, which is being executive produced by Steven Spielberg, is encountering some heavy turnover. First, producer David Fury has left due to creative differences. This is unsurprising as there are a lot of sci fi powerhouses involved with Terra Nova and undoubtedly there has been some butting of the heads.

Next, there is potential of a new cast member in Stephen Lang. He was in 'Avatar' as the villainous Colonel Miles Quaritch and I'm betting the powers-that-be are hoping his association with that movie will lend some eyeballs to this television show. It's a science fiction show on Fox, after all, and thus needs all the help it can get.

The show is about a group of humans from a dying future Earth go back in time to populate the world when the dinosaurs existed. Initially, this premise reminded me a bit of the British series Primeval, but other than the time travel and dinosaur elements, they are different stories altogether.
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